Yes, asylum seekers can get married in the United States. However, marriage doesn't automatically grant legal status or stop deportation proceedings. It may only provide additional options for obtaining legal status, depending on the spouse's status. Speak with an immigration attorney to know how marriage might affect your asylum case and explore all available options.
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Asylum or marriage, which is better for the long-term immigration process?
Asylum cases are taking longer than ever. They're taking four or five years. We have people who applied back in 2015 and 2016, but still have not had their interviews. Well, as you might imagine, these people are living and walking among us while their asylum case is pending at the USCIS Asylum Office, and sometimes they fall in love with a U.S. citizen. The question is, should they try to proceed with the asylum case, or should they try to get married to the person that they love and have that person file for a green card petition for them?
Hi, I'm Jim Hacking immigration lawyer practicing law throughout the United States at our offices in St. Louis, Missouri, and San Diego, California.
Now, this is an interesting question, and I was quite surprised that someone did ask me that. We've been seeing so much of this asylum status pending forever and then seekers getting married. People have different ideas about that. Those factual situations can cause different issues or problems.
The first thing you need to know is that if you have a long pending asylum case and you do fall in love and get married, and it's a real marriage, and it's for love, you absolutely should file for a green card. You're going to be on much safer ground. Also, you're going to get a green card much faster through marriage than you would through asylum.
I wouldn't do that. Leave the asylum case pending because you never know what's going to happen with the marriage. If the green card case begins processing and it goes through to completion, you will then withdraw the asylum case.
Don't listen to an officer who tries to force you to withdraw the asylum case. Sometimes they'll say, "Well, I can't adjudicate this with you having a pending asylum case." That is untrue. They can approve it, and we've had many approved like that.
Having that asylum case floating out there can slow down your green card case. That's okay because the whole shooting match is the green card based on merit. That's a much stronger case.
Many asylum cases that have wonderful merit are getting denied now. And so, because the asylum rates are so high, you're going to be on much safer ground, and you're going to go through a faster process if you do the marriage route versus the asylum route.
Don't dismiss the asylum case until your green card is in hand. At that point, it's okay to dismiss the asylum case and proceed. Now you'll have your green card, and you're on a much better path.
These are the kinds of things that we think about. Every case is a little bit different.
There is one scenario where you might want to keep the asylum case. If it's a strong asylum case, and that is if the beneficiary, the person receiving the green card or who's applied for asylum, entered the United States without inspection. A grant of asylum followed by a green card a year later would cure the entry without inspection.
If you do it the marriage route and the person enters without inspection, they're going to need a waiver. This is a tricky scenario.
If you're asking, can an asylum seeker get married in the U.S. - Yes.
But if you're choosing between asylum and marriage, it depends.
For the most part, if you were properly inspected, applied for asylum, your case is still at the asylum office, and you marry a U.S. citizen, you're going to be better off proceeding on that green card application than you are on the asylum case. If you entered without inspection, the analysis would be a little bit different.
Either way, you probably need the help of an experienced immigration attorney because this is a little bit tricky. Having two cases pending at once can sometimes confuse the system. The officers sometimes try to encourage the immigrant to withdraw their asylum application while the green card case is pending. And that's a bad idea, so don't do it.
If you have concerns regarding immigration law and the asylum process or any questions about citizenship and immigration services, give us a call (314) 961-8200.
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Thanks a lot, and have a great day.
